Jamie
in Las Cruces
This was a HARD puzzle, with a natick for me where SAL and SNEAD crossed. What is SAL soda?
All crosswords are a waste of time, in a good way. This was a waste of time in a bad way. I knew I was in for it when I didn't understand the paragraph of instructions but thought I'd certainly pick up the idea on the fly. I never did. Please, never give us another one of whatever this was.
I love a grid that doesn't require me to know people's names.
I feel meh about "mid"
Blech, hated it, more brain power than I wanted to spend on a puzzle.
IMO, this was just not a good puzzle. Even after giving up and revealing the answers, I still don't understand what the constructor was going for with a lot of these clues. Just absolutely a slog that never paid off.
A cute little puzzle that didn't raise any flags
And here I was banging my head against a metaphorical wall trying to figure out where Wayne's World took place.
I was defeated at the corner of WEEDTEA and WRIER. I had "DRIER" and DEEDTEA, which I figured must be some brand of THC tea. Oh well.
@Aaron I'm all for challenging puzzles that conform to the traditional definition of a crossword. As soon as you get jumping-around rebuses, that's not my bag.
Not my favorite because a) I'm not a Trekkie and b) I could not for the life of me get "games" for "sneakily exploits." Oh well.
Aril enjoyable Monday puzzle.
I had a heck of a time with the southeast corner but finally got it. This was one of those where on the first run through I barely had anything to hang my word-hat on.
@df I have been calling the singular a "paninus" but that sounds like a medical issue.
I guess the point of the gimmicks, like not accepting "line" as an answer, is to keep people humble by preventing them from racking up a streak. If so, it's working. If the point is to somehow enhance the solving experience, it's not working.
I really had to work at this one, and found the bottom left corner to be especially annoying due to the crossing of two obscure authors' names. But I'm proud of myself for getting it without googling anything.
Hated the 40 minutes that I did attempt to slog through it and finally just pressed the reveal puzzle button. I prefer my Sundays to be well-clued without too much weird gimmicry.
Some extremely quick Monday fun.
Is it cheating when you have the whole puzzle done except for one square and you put every letter in the alphabet in, one at a time, until you finally get the music? Because that's how this puzzle ended for me
@Jessie I live in NM and there are plenty of adobes around here
@dk Register as "Donner" next time.
Just the kind of dumb puns I like; but I have never heard of a Roleo.
I like it when a Monday puzzle has a theme!
Congratulations on your debut, youngster! I had to google for some of the answers.
@Mara G Same. There were too many singers and musicians that I had no clue about--although in retrospect the name DENIECE reminded me of one of my favorite Key and Peele sketches.
I loved the theme; once I figured out the conceit, the answers for each of the theme clues were extremely simple to suss out. A pleasure and required no googling.
I liked the jokes, but it would have been an easier puzzle had I followed the Yankees or Harry Potter.
You never know what's going to resonate, as a puzzle-doer. My first runthroughs were not very fruitful, especially because I had "eye of the hurricane" instead of BELLY OF THE BEAST. But I did know sunk cost fallacy, so that helped me find a lot of the across words.
Call of Duty isn't the most popular American video game franchise, and afaik it's spelled Ojibwe.
I enjoyed this puzzle, but it took me a long time to figure out the themed clues enough for them to help me with the rest of the puzzle.
Super cute theme! This was one where I probably made my job harder by attempting to fit what I knew about the thinkers into the spaces rather than attempting all of the other clues first.
I got stuck on who the heck ALIG might be. Only after I finished the puzzle and googled did I understand it was Ali G. Of whom I have never been a fan.
Do people really say "eye up"? Great puzzle but that clue raised my eye brow.
@Allison I know "echnidna" from They Might Be Giants's song "Mammal," "The fox, the ox, giraffe and shrew, echidna, caribou . . ."
This whole thing was on my WAVElength.
Cute themer for a Monday!
@Grant The museum has removed many of the interesting specimens on the grounds that the patients from whom they came did not consent to be displayed.
Didn't look to see what the theme was but finished in record time.
I liked it! I had almost naticked at the crossing of OLA and FOREMAN but patiently checked every answer until I got it.
I got a little hung up in the area around SPIRITPHONE
@Akin I think you could bake biscuits using infused butter.
@Patrick J. Same! That's where I ended up naticked on this otherwise fun puzzle
@Jerry Not to be all "well, actually," but there WAS a Tang Dynasty in China.
@James Taint nobody knows for sure
A gut Chineizish esn un a film to all who celebrate
@BR The theme was really not great and I was taken out at the Intersection of voile and dinks.
@Jesse S I started out with eggs to order
@Eric Hougland I've heard "bowsprit" but hadn't heard "sprit" by itself